


Cooling

by bloodyfandom



Category: NCIS
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-22
Updated: 2013-07-22
Packaged: 2017-12-21 01:13:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/894059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bloodyfandom/pseuds/bloodyfandom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Things don't always go the way we want them to.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cooling

**Author's Note:**

> This is a very short fic. Have a song too! Tori Amos - Cooling (live). I actually do recommend downloading and listening to the song while you read the fic. I think it makes a difference. *nods*
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfyW6V0FME8

It's a gap he can't bridge, ever widening, yawning chasms that are killing this thing which has grown between them. He's reaching, fingers stretching in vain but there's no effort from the other side. He realizes he's reaching for a man who doesn't wish to be pulled back in.  
  
  
So Tony stumbles into bed at night and turns over, facing the wall. He says goodnight and turns off the light, settling down without once touching the body beside him.  
  
He wakes in the morning and makes the coffee, pouring only one cup for himself. He doesn't look up over the paper, he doesn't point out interesting headlines or talk about the latest movie he's excited to see. There's no point in small talk, or casual touches. He's not ready for this to end, he wants it to last, to be as good in twenty years as it was when it started. To be better than when it started. Tony steels himself to the truth, however. A wish wasn't hardly enough to bend Jethro Gibbs.  
  
Soon Tony will feel as distant from this as it is from him.  
  
  
***  
  
  
One morning Jethro wakes up and realizes he's standing on the other side of a divide. The Grand Canyon sprang up between them in the middle of their bed and he's looking at Tony from the wrong side.  
  
He knows it's his fault, that he got up one day, started walking and forgot to make sure Tony was there with him for the trek. Or maybe that's wrong. Maybe he forgot he needed to make sure. Maybe he always forgot.  
  
Jethro is waving his arms and shouting, he's sending smoke signals, he's waving the flag but Tony is too busy preparing himself for the end. He's spending time at his own apartment again. He's going out. He's flirting with anyone who'll flirt back.  
  
Gibbs sees the ghosts of ex-wives past, smug and knowing on the side-lines, shaking their heads as Tony passes because he should've known. The poor bastard should've known better than to trust that this would last.

  
Jethro is holding up the sign that says "Don't Leave" but Tony is too far to see.  
  
  
***  
  
  
  
They're sitting in the kitchen, carefully not looking across the table at each other because the distance is too hard to bear.


End file.
